Gift of Renewed Friendship
By: Julia DeLuca
I LIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am SO sorry for keeping everyone waiting; but during my junior and senior year in high school, I've been VERY busy.and I just moved into my college dormitory, so time for stories have been short. But I'll try to work in time for my stories when I'm not in class, eating, working out, or studying. Enjoy!
Chapter 3: Enemies Resurface
Jessica brought her large quantity of tickets to the prize booth and set them down. The employee, a brunette with bleached spikes and brown eyes, counted the tickets and placed Jessica's chosen prizes before her: a new backpack, a duffle bag, and four temporary tattoos with the leftover tickets.
"That was an all time record you set there," the employee complimented. "I don't think I've ever seen anyone sink that many balls into those hoops that quickly."
"Well, I was a famous basketball player in my middle school back in Chicago, so I'm pretty good at shooting hoops," Jessica states, smiling proudly. "You seem to know talent when you see it, don't you?"
"Well, I am captain of the Boy's Varsity Basketball team down at UCSB. Got in there on a scholarship. Keep up that talent of yours, and you could too."
"For real? I wouldn't have to get a job and save up?"
"No, not at all," the employee assured. "Just make sure to study hard and get good grades in your school, and every major university in California will be banging on your door and offering you scholarships in exchange for playing on their team. Who knows; you may make it into the WNBA and play for the L.A. Sparks or something. I'll be here for the rest of the summer earning extra spending money, but if you wanna contact me outside of work to talk about this kinda stuff, here's my name and number."
The spiky-haired employee wrote his name and house number on a blank sheet of paper and put it into Jessica's hands and smiled at her. Jessica smiled back, and strapped her newly won backpack onto her back and walked out, waving back at the employee. When she left the arcade, she glanced at her note.
Simon Talakovsky. He seemed kinda cute. Too bad he's at least 6 years older than me. Her train of thought was suddenly broken by the growling of her stomach. Maybe I should've eaten at the pizzeria before I snuck off to the arcade; I'm starving! Her eyes caught glimpse of a burger stand at the food court. Or maybe a cheeseburger will do fine. Maybe if I'm lucky, I can order one with extra cheese, extra meat, and maybe some bacon on it! Heard that's a really good combo on a burger.
With that, Jessica raced off to the burger stand.
***
Two girls, one with black hair and purple streaks, and another with blonde hair, were sitting on a bench outside an ice cream parlor eating away at their ice cream cones.
"Nothing better on a hot afternoon than a double-scoop ice cream cone, especially when the scoops are big and in a waffle cone," said the blonde.
"Enjoy this moment while you can," the streaked-girl said. "In a few weeks, we go back to UCLA."
"Don't remind me. All those hard classes, those discussion labs, and block scheduling.it's a nightmare!"
"Don't blame me!" the streaked girl argued. "You were the one who decided to major in Neuroscience and minor in Calculus."
Before the blonde could make another comment, Mallory walked up to them. Each dropped their jaws in awe.
"Hi girls," Mallory said, pretending not to notice their wide, open mouths. "I'm looking for a couple of kids. One.which I'm sure you would notice a mile away, is Nosedive. And he's with another kid. She's kind of short with untamed brown hair, big green eyes, and is dressed in a white shirt and ripped blue jeans."
"Well," the blonde began. "I haven't seen Nosedive at all, but the little girl just ran by here about five minutes ago. She grabbed a large brownie sundae, practically wolfed it down without bothering to chew, and raced off to a shop. She went into Forever 21--"
"Thanks," Mallory interrupted.
"--but she left that shop 2 minutes later because I don't think she liked what they were offering. She went into a sports store, bought a few basketball jerseys, and left. She went left, to where I think she left to buy pants or something."
"Thanks again," Mallory said again. She signed her name on 2 napkins for the girls as thanks for the needed information, then left. As she walked, she noticed a familiar blonde nearby the pizzeria and glowered.
Why that irresponsible d*ckhead! Mallory cursed in her brain and stormed over to the pizzeria.
***
Nosedive broke his kiss off from Veronica's lips and smiled at her.
"That was entertaining," he said. "But I really gotta go. I think I kept Jessie waiting a little too long."
"Aww, don't go!" Veronica pleaded. "She can wait a few more seconds; I haven't seen you in ages!"
"Well.alright you win," Nosedive surrendered. "I can resist those big eyes of yours when you're all pleady and stuff."
"You should try to."
"What? Who said th--AHHHH!!!" Nosedive screamed.
"Yeah, it's good to see you too," Mallory stated sarcastically. "Quit swapping saliva with your bimbo--"
"GIRLFRIEND!" Veronica snapped at Mallory.
"Whatever. Point is, you should've waited for ME before you took Jessie here to the Mall, and NOT let her wander around this place by herself while on a sugar high as your girlfriend!"
"Girl, you're nuts," Nosedive said. "Jessie's inside."
Mallory stared at Nosedive's face, arms folded across her chest and tapping her foot. Suddenly unsure of what he said, he peeked inside the pizzeria and glanced around the building for a few minutes. He turned back to face Mallory, and smiled sheepishly at her. Mallory nodded and grabbed his wrist and dragged him away. Veronica just stood by and watched her boyfriend leave, filled with rage and annoyance.
"DIVE!"
"I'LL BE BACK; I PROMISE!"
"YOU'D BETTER BE!"
***
In an alley behind a restaurant , two green blobs glowed behind a dumpster. They soon each took form, one round and orange, and the other tall and gangly. Siege, the large and hefty Saurian, took a remote-like device out from his belt and held it out. Wraith looked around and cringed and disgust of his surroundings.
"Siege, why are we hiding here in this.dump? I thought we came out here to find that midget girl Lord Dragaunus demanded us to bring. Though I cannot imagine why he would need the help of some human teenage girl for his plans."
"One, I don't know either, but it's better we go along with what he tells us to do instead of questioning him. Two, we wouldn't have to hide behind a dumpster if you would've just casted that Invisibility spell you say you have!"
"I told you before; that spell would have taken hours to cast, and I need my scrolls to cast that spell and there was not any time to snatch them from my quarters."
"Do me a favor and quit it with the excuses," Siege growled. He then smiled. "Got her! Sector 5...71 degrees to the northeast."
***
A small girl stepped out of a public restroom and smiled. Wearing a white shirt underneath a purple and a woman's teal green basketball jersey, followed by new blue jeans and white tennis shoes, she walked around.
I don't see why people think that new clothes make you a new person, Jessica wondered. Oh well. Either way, it's nice to wear something I can officially label 'mine'. Probably been a while. Better get back to the pizzeria. Dive probably noticed I'm gone. I'll just tell him that I got bored of waiting for him and decided to get a head start. Not exactly a lie, since that was exactly what was on my mind.
As the young teenager began to walk back to the pizzeria, she noticed something glimmer in the back. Curious, she walked closer and saw a pair of green eyes. She slowly walked closer, making clicking noises with her mouth while making a 'come hither' notion with her index finger.
"Here kitty kitty," Jessica called to the green eyes. "Come here, kitty. I won't hurt you. Here, kitty kitty kitty. Here, kitty kitty ki--"
When Jessica stepped right up to the dumpster, the green eyes came closer to her. However, the green eyes were not those of an alley cat. When they stepped closer, she saw the eyes have a large round shadow form around them. Gradually, as the shadow drew closer, they began to take on the color of orange.
"HOLY CRAP! You ain't no kitty!"
"No, I'm the guy that's gonna take you hostage!"
As Siege made a grab for Jessica, she quickly bolted out of the way and ran off in the opposite direction she came. Siege growled an fidgeted with his teleporter.
"Come on! We got to grab the little brat!"
Wraith followed suite, and the two Saurians disappeared into the glowering green lights formed by their teleportation devices.
***
Jessica didn't dare look back as she continued to run through the huge crowd of people, nor did she care that people were staring at her or were angry at her for pushing them aside or knocking their stuff aside in her haste. All she cared about was getting as far away she could from those aliens as she could. In all of her haste, she didn't realize where she was going and ran smack into someone.
"Move it, will ya! I hafta--uh-oh."
When she looked up, she saw a familiar Avian with surfer-blonde hair and greenish blue eyes stare down at her, his facial expression a mix of annoyance and anger. Jessica slowly backed away and smiled up at him sheepishly. However, her innocent smile didn't cease or lessen Nosedive's firm stare at her. Instead, he looked even more angry.
"Where the hell were you?!" Nosedive practically shouted at her. "Mallory and I have been searching for you for nearly the last hour and a half! You realized what I could've been doing instead of looking for you, even though I told you to stay at the pizzeria?"
"Continue dribbling your saliva down that slut's mouth while you two tried to suck each other's mouths off?"
Nosedive opened his beak to respond to Jessica's smart-aleck remark, but all that came out of his beak was silence. Mallory came up behind Nosedive and smirked.
"I recommend closing that beak of yours before a fly decides to make that its new home," Mallory joked.
"Very funny," Nosedive retaliated. "Point is--wait. Jessie, where'd you get those new clothes? And that backpack and duffle bag?"
Before Jessica could open he mouth to respond, people were screaming and running all around in a crazed panic. Nosedive and Mallory looked up, and blinked in surprise and shock. Right in the middle of the mall stood Siege and Wraith, firing fireballs and laser blasts recklessly all over the place. Even though the blasts were nowhere near any possibility of hitting any bystanders or civilians, the events were shocking and frightening enough to scare everyone nearby and far away.
"The Saurians!" Mallory gasped silently to herself.
"But how? I thought we saw the last of them when Wildwing fired at their Gateway Generator three years ago!"
"Shouldn't be too much of a surprise that they're still alive," Mallory said. "They lived at the bottom of the ocean for three years, and fish was plen--"
Before Mallory could finish what she was saying, a laser blast came near her face and barely avoided grazing her cheek. She and Nosedive turned their attention to Siege and Wraith, who were in turn pointing their weapons at them. The two morphed into their battle gear, Jessica amazed at the sudden transformation.
"Whoa! You guys are hockey stars AND warriors? SUPER cool!"
"Dive, take Jessie to a safe and contact Wildwing and the others for back- up. I'll distract them until then."
"What? No way!" Jessica protested. "Just give me a gun of sorts and let me shoot at them! I slayed aliens in Maximum Force and Area 51, AND--"
"Dammit Jessie!" Nosedive yelled at her while shooting at Wraith. "This is NOT like an arcade game where you can just pop quarters in if you lose all your life points or something!" He then grabbed at the collar of her shirt and dragged her off, occasionally firing at Siege and Wraith. He then hid Jessie behind a bench. "Stay here keep out of sight until I say so, alright?"
"But why can't I--"
"Because I said so!" Nosedive said, running off.
Geez, Jessica thought irritably. I would've expected that kind of bossiness from that red-head bitch, or Wildwing.but not him! He's supposed to be laid back and all Lucy-goosey!
Jessica was so preoccupied with her thoughts and watching Nosedive and Mallory battle Siege and Wraith that she failed to hear teleportation sounds behind her. After taking form from the glowing green energy that temporarily surrounded his body, Chameleon made a grab for Jessica's face, attempting to keep her from screaming as he planned to take her captive. Unfortunately, Jessica heard the sounds and turned and grabbed Chameleon's wrists before he could do so. She then flipped him over her shoulder and sat on his back. Chameleon fidgeted and moved as hard as he could, but it was to no avail.
"Sorry, you're gonna have to do be--WHOAH!"
Before Jessica could finish what she had to say, Chameleon began to change form and transform under her body, causing her to rise above the ground. She quickly jumped off the moment he began to transform and turned around to face him. When she saw him in his Schwarzenegger-like ogre form, she was both amazed and terrified at the same time. She took in a large gulp of air as Chameleon slowly stormed towards her, cracking the knuckles of his now-large hands.
"How would you your death to be, puny girly-human?" Chameleon asked in a low German accent. "Quick and painless, or slow and horrible?"
"Ummm.can I go with none of the above?"
Her courage suddenly returning, Jessica ran towards Chameleon and rammed her head straight into his abdomen. The green Saurian doubled over in pain, transforming back into his original form. As he clutched his stomach in a futile attempt to ward off the pain in him, Jessica grabbed a nearby fallen branch from a close by tree and smashed it onto his head.
"OW!" he yelped in pain. "That hurts!"
"Then feel it again!" Jessica yelled as she brought her arms down and smacked Chameleon's head with the branch again.
"OW! OW! OW! OW!" Chameleon continued to scream as Jessica kept hitting him with the branch.
***
Nosedive quickly jumped over a planted tree and ducked behind the concrete that it was planted in. Completely flat on his stomach, he stumbled to re-load his puck launcher while lasers fired above his head. Just as he stuffed the last needed puck into his launcher, he quickly shuffled to the corner when he saw a fireball nearly hit him in his face. Wraith, towering over him with a ring of smoke around his feet, stood with a massive ball of fire in the palm of the scaly hand. "How I have longed for the taste of roast duck after surviving on fish for over three years," Wraith said as the fireball grew in size. "How shall I have you? Fried, or roasted?"
Before Wraith could make up his mind, something hit him from behind. Something cold and icy, which quickly turned into evaporated water the moment it touched his robes. He turned instantly, snarling his fanged teeth at whomever fired that shot at him. However, his look of rage instantly tuned to that of fear once he saw who fired on him.
"No! Not you!"
"BRO! YA MADE IT!"
Wildwing, leader of the Mighty Ducks, stood behind Wraith, bringing his left arm to his beak and blowing the smoke that seeped out of his recently-fired wrist launcher.
"Step. Away. From. My. Brother," Wildwing snarled at Wraith, re- extending his left arm to prepare to fire another round of pucks.
"Gladly," Wraith said, reforming his fireball. "Roasting you will be worthwhile much more than roasting the hatchling!"
In all his time talking, Wraith had forgotten all about Nosedive. Which was convenient for the younger duck, because it gave him the perfect opportunity to attack. Forgetting all about using his puck launcher at the moment, he used his brief moment of opportunity to tackle Wraith, pummeling him to the ground. He then grabbed each of his wrists and forced his arms behind his back to keep him form moving.
"Bro, hurry! I can't hold him still for very long! Use a bola puck on him; ANYTHING to keep him still!"
While Nosedive and Wildwing kept themselves busy handling Wraith, Tanya, Mallory, and Duke formed a triangle around Siege. He snarled, but then smirked.
"What's so funny?" Duke demanded.
"You have no idea what you're up against," Siege said, throwing a circle of metal bombs around him.
The bombs instantly exploded around Siege. However, instead of blowing him up like the others had expected them to, all they did was form a large shield of light around Siege's round body. The three ducks quickly covered their eyes with their arms to block the overly bright scenario before them. In doing so, they completely lost track on Siege's whereabouts when the lights died out.
"Where'd he go???" Mallory asked, completely panicked as she abruptly turned left and right. Suddenly, something kicked Mallory from behind, the sheer force of the kick causing her to fly forward.
"MALLORY!" Duke quickly raced over and caught Mallory before she could fall over. "You alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Mallory insisted. "Just point me to where that beach ball is and leave it at that."
"Easy," Tanya stated. "He's heading right towards us!"
As Siege racked over, ready to clobber the threesome, he was immediately checked to the side by the massive Grin, literally flying head first into a garbage can.
"Acceptance to instinct leaves one lost in sense and good judgment," Grin said.
Duke, Mallory, and Tanya just stared at Grin, completely bewildered by his statement. However, they had little time to wonder what he meant. Siege was slowly rising up, his legs wobbling slightly. Wraith, unable to wait for Wildwing to fire at him, chanted a spell that knocked Nosedive off of him and flew up against a tree.
"NOSEDIVE!" Wildwing shouted, rushing over to him, momentarily forgetting about Wraith's presence.
Wraith used the opportunity to regroup with his fellow comrade Siege, who had just managed to fully stand up and grab his gun from behind him. However, they each noticed that one of their companions was missing. Before one could ask the other where Chameleon was, they saw him running across, screaming like a baby as he was fired upon. When they looked back, they noticed Jessica firing Chameleon's laser gun at him, laughing insanely.
"Look at me everyone!" Jessica laughed while shooting. "I'm a laser- totting Lara Croft!"
"JESSIE!" Wildwing screamed at her. "STOP FIRING AND HIDE!!!!"
"No way!" Jessica shouted. "I'm having fun here, and--oh no.."
Jessica continued to press the trigger on the laser gun, but then realized that no more laser bullets were shooting out of the nozzle of the gun. She stared at the alien lizards, who smirked when realizing they had the upper hand. She screamed, and started to run the other way, forgetting that she still had the gun in her hand. As Siege ran towards her, he was instantly blocked by Tanya, Grin, and Nosedive. Wraith and Chameleon skidded to a halt as well. They looked back and realized that on the other side, they were surrounded by Wildwing, Duke, and Mallory. Realizing that the odds were not in their favor, they decided to retreat. Pressing the buttons on their communicators, a bright green light surrounded their bodies, slowly dematerializing into nothing until where the Saurians stood was nothing more than air and empty space.
"Am I the only one who hates it when they do that?" Mallory grunted.
"Definitely not," Wildwing confirmed. He then looked upwards. "Jessie, get down from that tree right now!"
"No!" Jessica shouted. "I'm safe up here! From those lizards, and from you!"
"Jessie, for once stop being a pain in the tail feathers!" Wildwing called out to her.
"We're not the ones trying to kill you; we've been spending the last 2 hours fighting them off to PROTECT you, as well as everyone here!" Duke shouted.
"If I come down, will you SWEAR not to go feral on me?"
"Yes, I swear," Wildwing agreed, trying to keep his temper in check. "Just get down here!"
With that, Jessica jumped from the tree she felt safe and secure in and stood before the leader.
"First, why were they chasing after you to begin with?" Wildwing asked. "Nosedive said he saw you running from something."
"Beats me," Jessica shrugged. "Aside from the fact that I kept hitting the green guy with the stick after trying to squash him because he tried to grab me.and shooting at him when his laser fell out of his belt.I don't have a clue."
"Second, what's with all the gear on you?" Wildwing asked. "I don't remember you ever owning a backpack like that.OR that kind of duffle bag."
"Won it at the arcade," Jessica defended. "It's pretty easy to win at the basketball hoop game if you've been playing basketball since you could walk."
"Third, where'd you get the money for those clothes," Mallory asked.
"You mean you didn't buy them with her?" Wildwing asked, slightly shocked.
"No, she took off on me at the pizzeria earlier in the afternoon," Nosedive said.
"Because I grew bored waiting for you to be done swapping saliva with that Armenian ho while you two were having a contest to see who can suck each other's lips off faster!"
Wildwing and everyone else stared at Nosedive, who in turn was blushing a deep crimson pink color in his cheeks.
"Uhh.can we change the subject please?"
***
Down in the Raptor, Wraith, Siege, and Chameleon looked up at Dragaunus as he bellowed in rage, the three huddled against each other. The force of his cry of rage was so great, that the entire ship was shaking. When he was done and the ship had ceased shaking, he snarled at his three henchmen, smoke coming out of his nostrils.
"How can you have failed to have captured one measly human being?!" he demanded. "And not just any human being; a teenage girl who is the size of one who is ELEVEN!!!!"
"Well, it didn't exactly help that she was with those ducks," Siege defended. "That made it difficult."
"It's always those 'ducks'!" Dragaunus yelled. "You ALWAYS use them as an excuse for your failure!" Dragaunus then calmed down, the smoke ceasing to seep out of his nostrils. "But no matter. Just a minor setback in our plans. We'll just have to wait until she's alone.or at least away from the protection of those meddlesome mallards before we can grab her and use her."
"Lord Dragaunus," Wraith humbly asked. "Why is it that we need the services of that human girl? Surely what you need done can be accomplished by our droids--"
"In these certain situations, one cannot rely on machinery," Dragaunus countered. "As great and convenient as machines may be, they only do what they are programmed to do; they cannot think for themselves. And none of you can do this job because none of you can fit into our power grid.not even you, Chameleon," he grunted down at his small, green servant. "No. From what I've seen of that human girl, only she can do what I need her do. Her small stature and thin, lithe fingers are what is needed. Besides, if we take the human girl, the ducks will naturally come and rescue her like all foolish heroes do. And once we have all six of them where we want them." Dragaunus snickered softly to himself. "Well, I'm sure you all can imagine what I have in store for them. Then, when they are FINALLY dead and the Raptor soars once more, no one will be able to stop us from making Earth the corner stone of a new order. MY order!!!!"
With that, Dragaunus laughed, and smiled evily, his fangs showing through his smile and his yellow eyes glowing.
~To Be Continued~
By: Julia DeLuca
I LIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am SO sorry for keeping everyone waiting; but during my junior and senior year in high school, I've been VERY busy.and I just moved into my college dormitory, so time for stories have been short. But I'll try to work in time for my stories when I'm not in class, eating, working out, or studying. Enjoy!
Chapter 3: Enemies Resurface
Jessica brought her large quantity of tickets to the prize booth and set them down. The employee, a brunette with bleached spikes and brown eyes, counted the tickets and placed Jessica's chosen prizes before her: a new backpack, a duffle bag, and four temporary tattoos with the leftover tickets.
"That was an all time record you set there," the employee complimented. "I don't think I've ever seen anyone sink that many balls into those hoops that quickly."
"Well, I was a famous basketball player in my middle school back in Chicago, so I'm pretty good at shooting hoops," Jessica states, smiling proudly. "You seem to know talent when you see it, don't you?"
"Well, I am captain of the Boy's Varsity Basketball team down at UCSB. Got in there on a scholarship. Keep up that talent of yours, and you could too."
"For real? I wouldn't have to get a job and save up?"
"No, not at all," the employee assured. "Just make sure to study hard and get good grades in your school, and every major university in California will be banging on your door and offering you scholarships in exchange for playing on their team. Who knows; you may make it into the WNBA and play for the L.A. Sparks or something. I'll be here for the rest of the summer earning extra spending money, but if you wanna contact me outside of work to talk about this kinda stuff, here's my name and number."
The spiky-haired employee wrote his name and house number on a blank sheet of paper and put it into Jessica's hands and smiled at her. Jessica smiled back, and strapped her newly won backpack onto her back and walked out, waving back at the employee. When she left the arcade, she glanced at her note.
Simon Talakovsky. He seemed kinda cute. Too bad he's at least 6 years older than me. Her train of thought was suddenly broken by the growling of her stomach. Maybe I should've eaten at the pizzeria before I snuck off to the arcade; I'm starving! Her eyes caught glimpse of a burger stand at the food court. Or maybe a cheeseburger will do fine. Maybe if I'm lucky, I can order one with extra cheese, extra meat, and maybe some bacon on it! Heard that's a really good combo on a burger.
With that, Jessica raced off to the burger stand.
***
Two girls, one with black hair and purple streaks, and another with blonde hair, were sitting on a bench outside an ice cream parlor eating away at their ice cream cones.
"Nothing better on a hot afternoon than a double-scoop ice cream cone, especially when the scoops are big and in a waffle cone," said the blonde.
"Enjoy this moment while you can," the streaked-girl said. "In a few weeks, we go back to UCLA."
"Don't remind me. All those hard classes, those discussion labs, and block scheduling.it's a nightmare!"
"Don't blame me!" the streaked girl argued. "You were the one who decided to major in Neuroscience and minor in Calculus."
Before the blonde could make another comment, Mallory walked up to them. Each dropped their jaws in awe.
"Hi girls," Mallory said, pretending not to notice their wide, open mouths. "I'm looking for a couple of kids. One.which I'm sure you would notice a mile away, is Nosedive. And he's with another kid. She's kind of short with untamed brown hair, big green eyes, and is dressed in a white shirt and ripped blue jeans."
"Well," the blonde began. "I haven't seen Nosedive at all, but the little girl just ran by here about five minutes ago. She grabbed a large brownie sundae, practically wolfed it down without bothering to chew, and raced off to a shop. She went into Forever 21--"
"Thanks," Mallory interrupted.
"--but she left that shop 2 minutes later because I don't think she liked what they were offering. She went into a sports store, bought a few basketball jerseys, and left. She went left, to where I think she left to buy pants or something."
"Thanks again," Mallory said again. She signed her name on 2 napkins for the girls as thanks for the needed information, then left. As she walked, she noticed a familiar blonde nearby the pizzeria and glowered.
Why that irresponsible d*ckhead! Mallory cursed in her brain and stormed over to the pizzeria.
***
Nosedive broke his kiss off from Veronica's lips and smiled at her.
"That was entertaining," he said. "But I really gotta go. I think I kept Jessie waiting a little too long."
"Aww, don't go!" Veronica pleaded. "She can wait a few more seconds; I haven't seen you in ages!"
"Well.alright you win," Nosedive surrendered. "I can resist those big eyes of yours when you're all pleady and stuff."
"You should try to."
"What? Who said th--AHHHH!!!" Nosedive screamed.
"Yeah, it's good to see you too," Mallory stated sarcastically. "Quit swapping saliva with your bimbo--"
"GIRLFRIEND!" Veronica snapped at Mallory.
"Whatever. Point is, you should've waited for ME before you took Jessie here to the Mall, and NOT let her wander around this place by herself while on a sugar high as your girlfriend!"
"Girl, you're nuts," Nosedive said. "Jessie's inside."
Mallory stared at Nosedive's face, arms folded across her chest and tapping her foot. Suddenly unsure of what he said, he peeked inside the pizzeria and glanced around the building for a few minutes. He turned back to face Mallory, and smiled sheepishly at her. Mallory nodded and grabbed his wrist and dragged him away. Veronica just stood by and watched her boyfriend leave, filled with rage and annoyance.
"DIVE!"
"I'LL BE BACK; I PROMISE!"
"YOU'D BETTER BE!"
***
In an alley behind a restaurant , two green blobs glowed behind a dumpster. They soon each took form, one round and orange, and the other tall and gangly. Siege, the large and hefty Saurian, took a remote-like device out from his belt and held it out. Wraith looked around and cringed and disgust of his surroundings.
"Siege, why are we hiding here in this.dump? I thought we came out here to find that midget girl Lord Dragaunus demanded us to bring. Though I cannot imagine why he would need the help of some human teenage girl for his plans."
"One, I don't know either, but it's better we go along with what he tells us to do instead of questioning him. Two, we wouldn't have to hide behind a dumpster if you would've just casted that Invisibility spell you say you have!"
"I told you before; that spell would have taken hours to cast, and I need my scrolls to cast that spell and there was not any time to snatch them from my quarters."
"Do me a favor and quit it with the excuses," Siege growled. He then smiled. "Got her! Sector 5...71 degrees to the northeast."
***
A small girl stepped out of a public restroom and smiled. Wearing a white shirt underneath a purple and a woman's teal green basketball jersey, followed by new blue jeans and white tennis shoes, she walked around.
I don't see why people think that new clothes make you a new person, Jessica wondered. Oh well. Either way, it's nice to wear something I can officially label 'mine'. Probably been a while. Better get back to the pizzeria. Dive probably noticed I'm gone. I'll just tell him that I got bored of waiting for him and decided to get a head start. Not exactly a lie, since that was exactly what was on my mind.
As the young teenager began to walk back to the pizzeria, she noticed something glimmer in the back. Curious, she walked closer and saw a pair of green eyes. She slowly walked closer, making clicking noises with her mouth while making a 'come hither' notion with her index finger.
"Here kitty kitty," Jessica called to the green eyes. "Come here, kitty. I won't hurt you. Here, kitty kitty kitty. Here, kitty kitty ki--"
When Jessica stepped right up to the dumpster, the green eyes came closer to her. However, the green eyes were not those of an alley cat. When they stepped closer, she saw the eyes have a large round shadow form around them. Gradually, as the shadow drew closer, they began to take on the color of orange.
"HOLY CRAP! You ain't no kitty!"
"No, I'm the guy that's gonna take you hostage!"
As Siege made a grab for Jessica, she quickly bolted out of the way and ran off in the opposite direction she came. Siege growled an fidgeted with his teleporter.
"Come on! We got to grab the little brat!"
Wraith followed suite, and the two Saurians disappeared into the glowering green lights formed by their teleportation devices.
***
Jessica didn't dare look back as she continued to run through the huge crowd of people, nor did she care that people were staring at her or were angry at her for pushing them aside or knocking their stuff aside in her haste. All she cared about was getting as far away she could from those aliens as she could. In all of her haste, she didn't realize where she was going and ran smack into someone.
"Move it, will ya! I hafta--uh-oh."
When she looked up, she saw a familiar Avian with surfer-blonde hair and greenish blue eyes stare down at her, his facial expression a mix of annoyance and anger. Jessica slowly backed away and smiled up at him sheepishly. However, her innocent smile didn't cease or lessen Nosedive's firm stare at her. Instead, he looked even more angry.
"Where the hell were you?!" Nosedive practically shouted at her. "Mallory and I have been searching for you for nearly the last hour and a half! You realized what I could've been doing instead of looking for you, even though I told you to stay at the pizzeria?"
"Continue dribbling your saliva down that slut's mouth while you two tried to suck each other's mouths off?"
Nosedive opened his beak to respond to Jessica's smart-aleck remark, but all that came out of his beak was silence. Mallory came up behind Nosedive and smirked.
"I recommend closing that beak of yours before a fly decides to make that its new home," Mallory joked.
"Very funny," Nosedive retaliated. "Point is--wait. Jessie, where'd you get those new clothes? And that backpack and duffle bag?"
Before Jessica could open he mouth to respond, people were screaming and running all around in a crazed panic. Nosedive and Mallory looked up, and blinked in surprise and shock. Right in the middle of the mall stood Siege and Wraith, firing fireballs and laser blasts recklessly all over the place. Even though the blasts were nowhere near any possibility of hitting any bystanders or civilians, the events were shocking and frightening enough to scare everyone nearby and far away.
"The Saurians!" Mallory gasped silently to herself.
"But how? I thought we saw the last of them when Wildwing fired at their Gateway Generator three years ago!"
"Shouldn't be too much of a surprise that they're still alive," Mallory said. "They lived at the bottom of the ocean for three years, and fish was plen--"
Before Mallory could finish what she was saying, a laser blast came near her face and barely avoided grazing her cheek. She and Nosedive turned their attention to Siege and Wraith, who were in turn pointing their weapons at them. The two morphed into their battle gear, Jessica amazed at the sudden transformation.
"Whoa! You guys are hockey stars AND warriors? SUPER cool!"
"Dive, take Jessie to a safe and contact Wildwing and the others for back- up. I'll distract them until then."
"What? No way!" Jessica protested. "Just give me a gun of sorts and let me shoot at them! I slayed aliens in Maximum Force and Area 51, AND--"
"Dammit Jessie!" Nosedive yelled at her while shooting at Wraith. "This is NOT like an arcade game where you can just pop quarters in if you lose all your life points or something!" He then grabbed at the collar of her shirt and dragged her off, occasionally firing at Siege and Wraith. He then hid Jessie behind a bench. "Stay here keep out of sight until I say so, alright?"
"But why can't I--"
"Because I said so!" Nosedive said, running off.
Geez, Jessica thought irritably. I would've expected that kind of bossiness from that red-head bitch, or Wildwing.but not him! He's supposed to be laid back and all Lucy-goosey!
Jessica was so preoccupied with her thoughts and watching Nosedive and Mallory battle Siege and Wraith that she failed to hear teleportation sounds behind her. After taking form from the glowing green energy that temporarily surrounded his body, Chameleon made a grab for Jessica's face, attempting to keep her from screaming as he planned to take her captive. Unfortunately, Jessica heard the sounds and turned and grabbed Chameleon's wrists before he could do so. She then flipped him over her shoulder and sat on his back. Chameleon fidgeted and moved as hard as he could, but it was to no avail.
"Sorry, you're gonna have to do be--WHOAH!"
Before Jessica could finish what she had to say, Chameleon began to change form and transform under her body, causing her to rise above the ground. She quickly jumped off the moment he began to transform and turned around to face him. When she saw him in his Schwarzenegger-like ogre form, she was both amazed and terrified at the same time. She took in a large gulp of air as Chameleon slowly stormed towards her, cracking the knuckles of his now-large hands.
"How would you your death to be, puny girly-human?" Chameleon asked in a low German accent. "Quick and painless, or slow and horrible?"
"Ummm.can I go with none of the above?"
Her courage suddenly returning, Jessica ran towards Chameleon and rammed her head straight into his abdomen. The green Saurian doubled over in pain, transforming back into his original form. As he clutched his stomach in a futile attempt to ward off the pain in him, Jessica grabbed a nearby fallen branch from a close by tree and smashed it onto his head.
"OW!" he yelped in pain. "That hurts!"
"Then feel it again!" Jessica yelled as she brought her arms down and smacked Chameleon's head with the branch again.
"OW! OW! OW! OW!" Chameleon continued to scream as Jessica kept hitting him with the branch.
***
Nosedive quickly jumped over a planted tree and ducked behind the concrete that it was planted in. Completely flat on his stomach, he stumbled to re-load his puck launcher while lasers fired above his head. Just as he stuffed the last needed puck into his launcher, he quickly shuffled to the corner when he saw a fireball nearly hit him in his face. Wraith, towering over him with a ring of smoke around his feet, stood with a massive ball of fire in the palm of the scaly hand. "How I have longed for the taste of roast duck after surviving on fish for over three years," Wraith said as the fireball grew in size. "How shall I have you? Fried, or roasted?"
Before Wraith could make up his mind, something hit him from behind. Something cold and icy, which quickly turned into evaporated water the moment it touched his robes. He turned instantly, snarling his fanged teeth at whomever fired that shot at him. However, his look of rage instantly tuned to that of fear once he saw who fired on him.
"No! Not you!"
"BRO! YA MADE IT!"
Wildwing, leader of the Mighty Ducks, stood behind Wraith, bringing his left arm to his beak and blowing the smoke that seeped out of his recently-fired wrist launcher.
"Step. Away. From. My. Brother," Wildwing snarled at Wraith, re- extending his left arm to prepare to fire another round of pucks.
"Gladly," Wraith said, reforming his fireball. "Roasting you will be worthwhile much more than roasting the hatchling!"
In all his time talking, Wraith had forgotten all about Nosedive. Which was convenient for the younger duck, because it gave him the perfect opportunity to attack. Forgetting all about using his puck launcher at the moment, he used his brief moment of opportunity to tackle Wraith, pummeling him to the ground. He then grabbed each of his wrists and forced his arms behind his back to keep him form moving.
"Bro, hurry! I can't hold him still for very long! Use a bola puck on him; ANYTHING to keep him still!"
While Nosedive and Wildwing kept themselves busy handling Wraith, Tanya, Mallory, and Duke formed a triangle around Siege. He snarled, but then smirked.
"What's so funny?" Duke demanded.
"You have no idea what you're up against," Siege said, throwing a circle of metal bombs around him.
The bombs instantly exploded around Siege. However, instead of blowing him up like the others had expected them to, all they did was form a large shield of light around Siege's round body. The three ducks quickly covered their eyes with their arms to block the overly bright scenario before them. In doing so, they completely lost track on Siege's whereabouts when the lights died out.
"Where'd he go???" Mallory asked, completely panicked as she abruptly turned left and right. Suddenly, something kicked Mallory from behind, the sheer force of the kick causing her to fly forward.
"MALLORY!" Duke quickly raced over and caught Mallory before she could fall over. "You alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Mallory insisted. "Just point me to where that beach ball is and leave it at that."
"Easy," Tanya stated. "He's heading right towards us!"
As Siege racked over, ready to clobber the threesome, he was immediately checked to the side by the massive Grin, literally flying head first into a garbage can.
"Acceptance to instinct leaves one lost in sense and good judgment," Grin said.
Duke, Mallory, and Tanya just stared at Grin, completely bewildered by his statement. However, they had little time to wonder what he meant. Siege was slowly rising up, his legs wobbling slightly. Wraith, unable to wait for Wildwing to fire at him, chanted a spell that knocked Nosedive off of him and flew up against a tree.
"NOSEDIVE!" Wildwing shouted, rushing over to him, momentarily forgetting about Wraith's presence.
Wraith used the opportunity to regroup with his fellow comrade Siege, who had just managed to fully stand up and grab his gun from behind him. However, they each noticed that one of their companions was missing. Before one could ask the other where Chameleon was, they saw him running across, screaming like a baby as he was fired upon. When they looked back, they noticed Jessica firing Chameleon's laser gun at him, laughing insanely.
"Look at me everyone!" Jessica laughed while shooting. "I'm a laser- totting Lara Croft!"
"JESSIE!" Wildwing screamed at her. "STOP FIRING AND HIDE!!!!"
"No way!" Jessica shouted. "I'm having fun here, and--oh no.."
Jessica continued to press the trigger on the laser gun, but then realized that no more laser bullets were shooting out of the nozzle of the gun. She stared at the alien lizards, who smirked when realizing they had the upper hand. She screamed, and started to run the other way, forgetting that she still had the gun in her hand. As Siege ran towards her, he was instantly blocked by Tanya, Grin, and Nosedive. Wraith and Chameleon skidded to a halt as well. They looked back and realized that on the other side, they were surrounded by Wildwing, Duke, and Mallory. Realizing that the odds were not in their favor, they decided to retreat. Pressing the buttons on their communicators, a bright green light surrounded their bodies, slowly dematerializing into nothing until where the Saurians stood was nothing more than air and empty space.
"Am I the only one who hates it when they do that?" Mallory grunted.
"Definitely not," Wildwing confirmed. He then looked upwards. "Jessie, get down from that tree right now!"
"No!" Jessica shouted. "I'm safe up here! From those lizards, and from you!"
"Jessie, for once stop being a pain in the tail feathers!" Wildwing called out to her.
"We're not the ones trying to kill you; we've been spending the last 2 hours fighting them off to PROTECT you, as well as everyone here!" Duke shouted.
"If I come down, will you SWEAR not to go feral on me?"
"Yes, I swear," Wildwing agreed, trying to keep his temper in check. "Just get down here!"
With that, Jessica jumped from the tree she felt safe and secure in and stood before the leader.
"First, why were they chasing after you to begin with?" Wildwing asked. "Nosedive said he saw you running from something."
"Beats me," Jessica shrugged. "Aside from the fact that I kept hitting the green guy with the stick after trying to squash him because he tried to grab me.and shooting at him when his laser fell out of his belt.I don't have a clue."
"Second, what's with all the gear on you?" Wildwing asked. "I don't remember you ever owning a backpack like that.OR that kind of duffle bag."
"Won it at the arcade," Jessica defended. "It's pretty easy to win at the basketball hoop game if you've been playing basketball since you could walk."
"Third, where'd you get the money for those clothes," Mallory asked.
"You mean you didn't buy them with her?" Wildwing asked, slightly shocked.
"No, she took off on me at the pizzeria earlier in the afternoon," Nosedive said.
"Because I grew bored waiting for you to be done swapping saliva with that Armenian ho while you two were having a contest to see who can suck each other's lips off faster!"
Wildwing and everyone else stared at Nosedive, who in turn was blushing a deep crimson pink color in his cheeks.
"Uhh.can we change the subject please?"
***
Down in the Raptor, Wraith, Siege, and Chameleon looked up at Dragaunus as he bellowed in rage, the three huddled against each other. The force of his cry of rage was so great, that the entire ship was shaking. When he was done and the ship had ceased shaking, he snarled at his three henchmen, smoke coming out of his nostrils.
"How can you have failed to have captured one measly human being?!" he demanded. "And not just any human being; a teenage girl who is the size of one who is ELEVEN!!!!"
"Well, it didn't exactly help that she was with those ducks," Siege defended. "That made it difficult."
"It's always those 'ducks'!" Dragaunus yelled. "You ALWAYS use them as an excuse for your failure!" Dragaunus then calmed down, the smoke ceasing to seep out of his nostrils. "But no matter. Just a minor setback in our plans. We'll just have to wait until she's alone.or at least away from the protection of those meddlesome mallards before we can grab her and use her."
"Lord Dragaunus," Wraith humbly asked. "Why is it that we need the services of that human girl? Surely what you need done can be accomplished by our droids--"
"In these certain situations, one cannot rely on machinery," Dragaunus countered. "As great and convenient as machines may be, they only do what they are programmed to do; they cannot think for themselves. And none of you can do this job because none of you can fit into our power grid.not even you, Chameleon," he grunted down at his small, green servant. "No. From what I've seen of that human girl, only she can do what I need her do. Her small stature and thin, lithe fingers are what is needed. Besides, if we take the human girl, the ducks will naturally come and rescue her like all foolish heroes do. And once we have all six of them where we want them." Dragaunus snickered softly to himself. "Well, I'm sure you all can imagine what I have in store for them. Then, when they are FINALLY dead and the Raptor soars once more, no one will be able to stop us from making Earth the corner stone of a new order. MY order!!!!"
With that, Dragaunus laughed, and smiled evily, his fangs showing through his smile and his yellow eyes glowing.
~To Be Continued~